


Mother's Daughter

by Brightbear



Category: Tangled (2010)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-23
Updated: 2011-12-23
Packaged: 2017-10-27 22:43:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/300836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brightbear/pseuds/Brightbear
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rapunzel asks a lot of questions but is she asking the right ones?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mother's Daughter

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kawree](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kawree/gifts).



> I'm sorry this wasn't as Rapunzel/Eugene focused as I'd intended.

When Rapunzel found her family again, her real family, the excitement seemed to never end. There were so many new things to see and to try, new places to go and new people to wave at. Sometimes things got awkward when there were more people around than she really knew how to talk to all at once, but then she found if she just started singing then things would be okay. Everyone would join in and start dancing - even Eugene, even if he still occasionally rolled his eyes and pretended he didn't want to. Still, it was sometimes a relief to go back to her room, where it was quiet and hers.

Rapunzel's parents, the King and Queen, didn't like her and Eugene to be alone together in her bedroom - Rapunzel wasn't quite sure why since they allowed them to be together as much as they liked in every other room. Rapunzel remembered that Mother Gothel had once said that bedrooms were only for sleeping in and should never be used for anything else, under any cirumstances ever. So Rapunzel thought that might be why.

Dinner nearly every night was the four of them - the King, the Queen, Rapunzel and Eugene. It was at a big long table with stern servants who came and went without saying a word. At the end of desert, the King would shift his chair around next to Rapunzel and ask what Rapunzel's day had been like so she would tell him; about the frog that started a fight with Pascal in the lily pond, the way the Guards marched in squares in the courtyard, the cloud that looked so much like a tree, and about the way that a girl in the marketplace had given her a big yellow flower. The King would nod along as he listened, enchanted by every word she said. He had kind eyes that looked at her as if she was the most precious treasure in the world and when she ran out of things to tell him, he would kiss on the forehead. He gave her anything and everything she asked for, and sometimes gave her things when she didn't even ask.

The Queen would always smile when Rapunzel would start talking but after a while she would settle back in her chair. She always sat very straight and she'd look at the fireplace if it was lit or out the windows at the evening sky if it wasn't. Sometimes she'd talk to Eugene, who always tended to be quieter during dinner except when he was laughing at things that weren't really that funny. Rapunzel knew her mother heard about the lily pond and the guards but maybe she hadn't heard the bit about the cloud and she definitely wasn't listening when Rapunzel talked about the flower. It made Rapunzel sad. A couple of times Rapunzel started singing, just trying to make things less awkward. The King would sing too, a rich deep baritone, and often he would take Rapunzel's hand and the two of them would start dancing around the room. Eugene would say that he was glad he was being given a rest for once and clap along as they moved. The Queen would sing softly and a little croakily while they danced until once Rapunzel jokingly asked if the Queen had swallowed a frog - the Queen went very quiet and still, and wouldn't sing at all after that no matter how much Rapunzel apologised or said she was just kidding.

Rapunzel wasn't sure what to do, and she wasn't sure if she should ask the King, so she asked Eugene. Eugene was busy charming the castle cooks into giving him apples before Maximus the horse got to them. He had three tucked safely into the crook of his arm when Rapunzel asked him. Eugene quirked his head in the way he had, like her question wasn't stupid or naive. He scratched his head and thought a moment.  
"Well, you certainly can talk," said Eugene. "Maybe next time you should ask what her day was like. It's just a thought."  
Rapunzel asked so many questions every day, of so many different people - but she didn't think she'd asked either of her parents that one in a while. So she kissed Eugene on the cheek and made him blush and drop the apples while all the castle cooks giggled behind their hands.  
"Thank you," she said. "I will."

That night at dinner Rapunzel was nervous and talked more during the meal than she ever had before. When the meal was over, the King shuffled his chair around and asked Rapunzel what she'd done with her day. She looked at Eugene and he gave her a thumbs up behind the gravy boat where the King and Queen couldn't see it. Rapunzel took a deep breath.  
"IhadagooddaybutIwantedtoknowwhatmotherdidwithherdaydidshehaveagoodoneorwasitboringyouknowthatkindofthing."  
"I'm sorry, my dear," frowned the King. "I didn't quite get that."'  
Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that the Queen had looked up from the fireplace and was looking at her.  
"I said, I had a good day, a really good day," repeated Rapunzel, forcing herself to speak slower. "But I thought... that is I wondered... what kind of day did Mother have?"  
The King's eyebrows rose up his forehead and he turned to look at the Queen. Rapunzel turned to see that the Queen was staring straight at her, with faint surprise and curiosity.

"You don't want to hear about my day, my love," said the Queen gently. "You'd probably find it really boring and not your kind of thing at all."  
"Yes, I do," insisted Rapunzel. "I talk about all my days but I've never heard you talk about yours."  
"Oh, well, I didn't really do much of interest," said the Queen. "I spent most of today reading books."  
Rapunzel waited but the Queen shrugged and wouldn't say any more. Rapunzel looked at Eugene who made a little 'go on' gesture with his hands behind the desert tray.

"What books did you read? I like books," said Rapunzel. "I used to read all three books every day."  
The Queen gave her a funny look, "All three books of _what _dear, there are a lot of books to choose from."  
Rapunzel felt her heart sinking - of course there were more than three books. She'd discovered there was so much more to the rest of the world, so why wouldn't there be more books. She felt stupid.  
"I thought there were only three," said Rapunzel, blushing and looking at her lap.  
"You've only read three books?" continued the Queen, sounding dumbfounded. "Would you... well, do you want to read more?"__

"Read more?" asked Rapunzel, looking up. "Oh yes, please. I'd love that."  
"I don't know what to give you first," said the Queen, looking excited. "I could give you the one about... but then there's the one with the horse. Maybe you'd like the one with the glass slipper. Do you like the happy ones or the sad ones? What about ones with animals or ones with people? doyoulikethosebetteritsokayillgetthemforyou?"  
Before Rapunzel could answer the Queen was up and out of her seat, hurrying out of the room and pushing the door open herself before the servants could open it for her. Rapunzel looked at the King, who just smiled and kissed her on the forehead. She looked at Eugene who smiled broadly at her and didn't bother to hide it behind anything.

A few minutes later the Queen came sprinting back into the room with piles and piles of books in her arms. Her crown had been knocked sideways and she was missing one of her shoes. The Queen stopped awkwardly in the room, arms bulging, and looked at Rapunzel nervously.  
"I mean," stammered the Queen. "Well, the books are here if... if you want to read them."  
"There's so many," said Rapunzel, staring. "I've never seen so many."  
"Oh, well," said the Queen, scuffing her bare foot against the wooden floor. "I bought one for you every year on your birthday, you see. Some of them are old and yellow, and they're for little children so you probably wouldn't like them."

Somewhere in this castle there was a single book for every birthday Rapunzel had ever had. That was nineteen books when Rapunzel had thought there were only ever three to begin with.  
"Have you read them?" asked Rapunzel.  
"Yes, I've read them all," said the Queen. "I've read them several times, sometimes I even read them out loud."  
"Oh," said Rapunzel. "Would you read them to me?"  
The Queen looked at Rapunzel as if she was the most precious thing in the world. And she smiled.


End file.
